HP to Channel Partners: We’ve Got Your Back

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) may be splitting into two separate corporations, but company executives stressed they are working hard to ensure its partners remain unaffected by the division.

The company used its Global Partner Conference 2015 in Las Vegas as a launch pad for several new initiatives centered on helping partners ease into the upcoming split, including its HP Navigator program and the HP AllianceOne Partner program. Both programs are aimed at helping current partners to settle into a familiar groove ahead of the introduction of HP Enterprise and HP Inc.

With the HP Partner Navigator program, the company’s most complex direct partners will be assigned their own personal Partner Navigators to help them address operational needs associated with the split, including ways in which to continue benefiting from their relationship with the company, according to Page Murray, vice president of Worldwide Channel Marketing at HP. The program will also focus on helping partners to maintain business continuity through the separation via dedicated HP Partner Support Centers.

“We wanted to make sure that we had a navigator program that had enough scope to cover the majority of the business we had going forward, especially some of the higher hot pockets of growth,” said Murray, in an interview with The VAR Guy. “We don’t want anyone to fall through the cracks as we separate.”

HP also introduced its AllianceOne Partner program, which will act as a bridge between the partner programs for HP Enterprise and HP Inc. The program will help partners to get lead registration opportunities and other joint business and marketing opportunities in key areas of the portfolios, and will serve as a way for HP executives to communicate and collaborate on partner activities and other joint conference events. The program is available to all HP partners.

In addition to the new programs, HP revealed several updates to its partner business, including an improved Helion Partner Marketplace. The marketplace, which is available now in the United States, is expected to serve as a one-stop shop for resellers to design, provision and maintain public cloud services for their SMB customers. The company has been participating in hackathons and other events as a way to attract a new breed of resellers who might not normally have been associated with the company, according to Harry Gould, vice president of Worldwide Alliances and Channels at HP Software.

“In the past I don’t think HP has been associated with cool,” said Gould. “We’re trying to reach out to a community where at HP software we’ve really never harnessed before. And we’re doing it in kind of a cool way.”

The company will also focus on developing new mobility sales plays centered around its key verticals, as well as the creation of a new Mobility Certification program to help partners profit from the growing workforce productivity solutions market, according to the announcement. HP Inc. plans to launch a separate commercial partner program for its solutions-oriented partners and system integrators later this year after the division is complete.

HP announced it would split into two separate companies in October, with current president and CEO Meg Whitman running HP Enterprise and Dion Weisler in charge of HP Inc., the company’s Printing and Personal Services division. Both companies are expected to launch as of Nov. 1.

“As HP continues its path toward becoming two new Fortune 50 companies, we remain laser-focused on maintaining the same commitment to the channel that our partners have come to trust,” Whitman said, in a statement. “HP is helping partners maintain business continuity and, at the same time, capture market opportunity through a services-centric, outcomes-driven approach.”